February 2019 Issue no 151 , Cypress Grove, Templeogue, Dublin 6W YV12 Tel: House: (01)405 5263. email: [email protected] Appeal for Orphaned Children “What do you want to be when you grow up?” in Ethiopia!

L-R. Ziada Haimanot Fana

Sadly, there are many thousands of children who do is a question often asked of children not enjoy security in their lives. For them, the issue is This by concerned parents, doting not so much, “when I grow up…” as “If I grow up…” grandparents and curious neighbours. And the In 2003, the Missionaries of Africa in Ethiopia answers are classical, even predictable: an engineer, opened St. Mary’s Children’s Home for children an accountant, a doctor, an IT specialist, an astronaut. living in situations of insecurity. We offered them These answers most often reflect the hopes and their basic needs of shelter, food, clothing and medical aspirations of children who enjoy security in their care. In addition we encouraged the children to pursue lives. All their basic needs are met: they have a solid their education to the best of their ability, with our full roof over their heads, an abundance of clothing, are support, because a good education would offer them assured 3 meals a day, attend a good school and have security and hope for their future. access to good medical care. Given such security, they St. Mary’s is however more than a refuge, a ‘safe are free to dream - even to dream of the impossible. port’, for those living in vulnerable situations. Inspired But what if you do not enjoy such security? What by the Holy Family of Nazareth, we have endeavoured if you are living on the streets because of poverty in to create a Christian home environment within which your family? What if you are orphaned and have no Gospel values such as love, forgiveness, acceptance, relatives to care for you? What if you have run away respect would be lived. The staff members serve as from home because you are being abused? What are guardians and mentors to the children who, in turn, your hopes and dreams for the future? learn to accept and care for each other as brothers and sisters. Continued Page 2 WHO PACKS YOUR PARACHUTE?

I was a student in London I fixes your car? When would volunteer during the Who blessed you Summer in the Cheshire Homes. I was lucky to meet today? Who blessed their founder, Leonard Cheshire. He was the lead pilot you yesterday? of the Dambusters and the official British observer Who packs your when the A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. When parachute ? Name, bless and thank he’d come back from a successful bombing raid them. he would gather together the hangar cleaners, the There’s a parachute folders and the mechanics and thank them corresponding for their part in his mission. I’m not sure if he is the Lenten question : originator of the phrase : Who Packs your parachute ? Whos eparachute but he certainly lived its spirit. have you packed or He was also an amateur photographer and enlisted me to bounce the light beams off the ceilings and failed to pack ? Who walls when he was shooting his photos. I was having did you bless or fail a vocation crisis at the time and he, forgive the pun, to bless ? We all fail in the small but important things took me under his wing, and treated me as his son. like saying hello, giving thanks, congratulating, and In spite of his fame he was so unassuming and was affirming, being kind for no reason. Lent is a time to an extraordinarily kind and caring man. acknowledge our failures. To admit the times when So, who packs your parachute ? There you have my we have failed to bless others, failed to show them suggested question for Lent. Who are the unrecognised compassion, failed to heal and forgive. “nobodies” in your life who bless and provide you says : “At the evening of life, we with what you need to get through the day ? shall be judged on our love ”. Parachute packing can Who puts bread on your table, who does your be a very practical way of loving. laundry, who cleans your streets, brings your mail, Fr Charlie Timoney

Continued from Page 1 Appeal for Orphaned Children in Ethiopia!

electricians, mechanics, welders, taxi drivers. Others are accountants, medical personnel, engineers, IT specialists. All are fulfilling their dream of what they wanted to be when - and not if - they grew up. The need for secure and hope-filled environments, like St. Mary’s Children’s Home, continues to this day. At present, we are offering full residential care to 42 children and teenagers; a further 32 who are in college or university are also receiving our support. This ministry is extremely rewarding. It offers hope in the midst of hopelessness; it fulfils the dreams of those Two boys enjoying lunch who scarcely dared to dream Since 2003, many children have passed through The future of St. Mary’s Children’s Home is very St. Mary’s Children’s Home and been reintegrated much dependent on the continued prayers and financial into mainstream Ethiopian society. They appreciated support of people of good will who see, in its ethos the secure Christian environment that freed them to and activities, a reflection of God’s love for the least focus on their education and dream what was once of his children. the impossible dream. Today, some of them are Fr. Gerry Murphy St Anne’s Basilica in East Jerusalem A Place Apart!

Christians gathered to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection at the Easter Vigil in St. Anne’s.

200 metres from the Temple church became a Koranic school for some time before Situated Mount/Haram al Sharif, falling into disuse. In recent history, it was restored St Anne’s Basilica is located at the start of the via by the government of and entrusted to the Dolorosa. This is the route that Christian pilgrims Missionaries of Africa 140 years ago. follow when they trace the last journey of Jesus Presently, we are 24 Missionary of Africa and carrying his cross through Jerusalem. students from 14 nationalities doing a variety of tasks. For the visitor, the Church has a number of attractions. Besides the 10 students studying theology, others are Foremost are the excavations that date from the time engaged in diverse activities including , of Herod the Great (36 B.C. to 4 A.D.). Archeologists bible sessions, and caring for a museum. However, say with some certainty that the dry pools seen today the one activity that involves us all is the welcoming are the pools of Bethesda mentioned in the gospel of of pilgrims who visit the site from all over the world. John chapter 5. This is where Jesus famously cured a A special moment in the life of the Church in the Holy man who was crippled for 38 years, saying the words land is celebrated every Palm Sunday. A procession ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’. starts in nearby Bethany and makes its way to St Another appeal of the site is the tradition, dating from Anne’s, commemorating the triumphal entry of the 2nd Century, which asserts that Mary was born Jesus into Jerusalem. It is a time when Orthodox and near the pools. She is said to have lived there with Catholics from the West Bank and Jerusalem walk her parents, Anne and Joachim, until around the time together with pilgrims from many countries, in a of her betrothal to . This tradition while not festival of joy and of being Christian in the land of mentioned in the New Testament is revered by both Jesus. Western and Eastern Oriental Churches. In a city marked by many conflicts, St Anne’s can be Around 1130 A.D. the crusaders built a magnificent a place where people appreciate their faith and history church in honour of St Anne beside the reputed that is also shared in some way by others who are birthplace of Mary. To this day the Basilica is different. considered to be the best surviving example of Welcome to St Anne’s, a truly remarkable site of crusader church architecture in the Holy Land. After history and of living faith. Fr Jim Greene the defeat of the crusaders in 1187 by Saladin, the of the Martyrs of .

December the 8th On nineteen Catholic Missionaries – both men and women, murdered in the period 1994 to 1996– were beatified in the cathedral of in Algeria. Among them was the of Oran, , seven monks of Tibhirine, four White Fathers of Tizi Ouzu and seven other Catholic missionary women and men.

If these martyrs are beatified, however, it is not because they were assassinated – remember, some 200,000 people were killed. If they are sanctified, it will be for having remained in place to faithfully serve the Algerian communities, who were aware of how precious their commitment was. Mgr. Teissier (retired Arch- Bishop of ) Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) have had a continued presence in Algeria for the past 150 years and the community in Tizi-Ouzu lived out their witness to God’s love to the people of the region in humble and committed manner. Our four colleagues choose to remain with the people whom they loved out of their deep love of God and solidarity with their suffering neighbours.

A stole, worn by one of the priests at the mass during which the 19 martyrs were beatified, is placed on the altar of one of the chapels in which mass is celebrated in Algeria. The picture suggests the inbreaking of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ to inspire missionaries to witness to God’s love for all humanity. The in Algeria a model for the Irish Church?

missionaries who have been recently in the certitude that we are all sons and daughters of The beatified in Algeria were all passionate God… about their Church, of which they were zealous The prophetic nature of the small church of Algeria servant, and passionate also about Algeria and its will enlighten the horizon of tomorrow. It is not for people where they had weaved their friendships. nothing that these martyrs died with a very great Humble and gentle, the Lord radiated from their hearts, number of Moslems men and women. Together in their lives and in their silence. They witnessed to they intercede that our humanity becomes more a settled, lucid faith, the faith of those preparing the welcoming, more tolerant, more human and capable way for dialogue in their prayer and in their presence. of giving glory to God in His diversity. They are a beautiful image of the church in Algeria: small, a few thousand faithful people. It is a living church which has lost its social power and pomp. Daily, it lives love and service. Thus purified and without ambitions, it can be a bridgehead for dialogue with Islam. The small Church of Algeria is conscious that it is living a prophetic mission, that of creating for tomorrow the climate for a most peaceful dialogue between the Christian faith and the Moslem faith,

Filling the Potholes

Twenty-five years ago I was stationed in a large live on their own wits on the town in East Africa At that time the townspeople had streets. The citizens of the two big problems: town demanded that they be First, the terrible condition of the roads and streets removed from their midst – no tar roads, only ‘dust streets’. They were full of even calling for them to be deep potholes. There were regularly serious accidents jailed. involving vehicles swerving to avoid them and in so It was, therefore, a doing hitting other vehicles and pedestrians. nightmare to use the streets It was the duty of the town council to repair these due to the potholes and roads in the town but they claimed they could not the ‘street-kids’. Then, all of a sudden, something do so do lack of funds. They rather encouraged the dramatic happened which changed everything: The town residents to take it upon themselves to repair the youths came with shovels and buckets and began to roads. The locals refused, crying ”why should we do it fill in the potholes. They did a marvellous and the after all, we are paying taxes to the council.” townspeople were delighted – drivers and pedestrians stopped to praise them and give them money. As a The potholes got bigger and there were more and result, the boys stopped their threatening behaviour in more accidents with some fatalities. Everyone was the town. Business people began to have confidence in blaming someone else while no one took action. the youths and trusted them with jobs for which they The second big problem in the town was the large were paid. number of youths who roamed the streets begging, There is a lesson in all of this that love and stealing and threatening passers-by to give them compassion can change us all! money. These youths came from broken homes and were largely abandoned by their families and left to Fr.Eddie Brady Please Pray for our Friends who have died

Fr John Millane M.Afr Sr Rosaria O’Neill Convent of Mercy, Dundalk, Co.Louth Gerard Collins Lisnaskea, Co.Fermanagh Sarah Friel Derrybeg, Co.Donegal Mary Martin Carrownanty, Co.Sligo Ms. Mary O’Donnell Kincasslagh, Co.Donegal Mrs Bernadette Conlon Ballybofey, Co.Donegal Mrs Nora Marnell Templemore, Co.Tipperary Mrs Peggie Fitzgerald St.’s Nursing Home, Caherconlish, Co.Limerick Kathleen Greene Blacklion, Co.Cavan Eileen Browne Kinvara, Co.Galway

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. May they Rest in Peace with the Father

PLEASE REMEMBER THE MISSIONS IN YOUR WILL Our legal name is Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers). A suitable formula is: I give to the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) the sum of €...... free of duty. And I declare that the Delegate of the Society who now resides at Cypress Grove, Templeogue, Dublin 6W shall be in good discharge. Carry on the good work you have been doing during your life by helping to spread the Gospel after you have gone to the Father.